by Jon Swartz, USA TODAY, @jswartz

by Jon Swartz, USA TODAY, @jswartz

He calls the iPhone "passe." Apple, he contends, has lost its innovative edge. Android? "It is part of a fiercely competitive market," he says.

And, yet, he is remarkably candid about BlackBerry's perceived second-class status in the pecking order of smartphones. "We have the same issue as Apple," he says. "We need to earn our laurels back. We have a long way to go."

In a phone interview with USA TODAY on the eve of the Z10 launch in New York on Friday, Heins deemed the roll-out a "major milestone" for the company. "We did not build a new product; we built a new platform," he says.

To be sure, BlackBerry has its work cut out. The Canadian company faces the onerous task of reversing its flagging fortunes in an overcrowded smartphone market. It is pinning its hopes on its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system, which has garnered generally positive reviews and helped bump up its stock.

At the same time, BlackBerry 10 has about 100,000 apps, compared with about 700,000 each for Android and iOS. "They are clearly living in an echo chamber," says Larry Levy, CEO of Appinions, which analyzes marketing data for Fortune 500 companies. "They are out of the influence circle, behind Apple, Google and Microsoft."

Still, shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) were up 1%, to $16.18, Thursday and surged 6% Wednesday following an upgrade from Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum. He says the company's new mobile device could emerge as a "niche midrange player" in the smartphone market.

BlackBerry plans to make available its new Z10 touch-screen phone in the U.S. on Friday. The new product line, announced in January, carries a margin of about 20%, and Gelblum estimates margins for the Q10 model could hit an Apple-like 30%.

Heins contends several features - the ability to run multiple apps at the same time and a predictive tool that chooses words as you type - will win over consumers unfamiliar with the handheld device, as well as sway users in the government and enterprise. "We are in the market to win every consumer back," he says.

The same hyperspeed innovation cycle that he says makes it harder for iOS to compete may benefit BlackBerry. "This industry moves so fast, that if you forget to be on your tippy toes every minute, you are at risk," says Heins, who says he can't wait to launch Z10 and "fight" for customers.

He estimates the life cycle for products is one year to 18 months, and about five years for computing platforms.

Heins hastens that Apple "did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon," he says. "There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that."